Design

Morning News Roundup: Pritzker Laureate Hans Hollein Dies at 80

Architecture news and views from around the nation and beyond.

Austrian architect and designer Hans Hollein died yesterday at age 80. A 1985 Pritzker Prize laureate, Hollein was an important influence on postmodern architecture. Some of his most important works include the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, the Haas House in Vienna, and the Glass and Ceramics House in Teheran, Iran.

Tweet of the Day:

From the Pritzker jury citation: Hollein "never fears to bring together the richest of ancient marbles and the latest in plastics."

Half a century later… With a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, unfinished plans for an extensive garden park at Arkansas’s Greers Ferry Lake will finally be updated and completed. Over 50 years ago, Edward Durell Stone drew up a master plan but the project was never completed. The University of Arkansas Community Design Center, along with Fayetteville’s Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, and Little Rock’s Ecological Design Group will update Stone’s proposal with modern standards.

Quote of the Day: “This is a legacy project unlike any other in the state, even beyond the fact that E.D. Stone is the author,” says Steve Luoni, University of Arkansas Community Design Center director. “Stone’s proposal recombines architecture, landscape architecture, and large-scale civil engineering in a sweeping and magnificent site design. Our key challenge will be to reconcile the modest scale of programs with Stone’s outsized choreography of spaces—a dream project, but one that will keep us awake at night.”

Instagram of the Day:

Happy birthday: Architects I.M. Pei and Peter Zumthor both have birthdays tomorrow. Pei will be 97 and Zumthor will be 71.

4 More Stories for Friday:

Ellen Degeneres, the “property hound,” has been buying and renovating homes all over Southern California. “As much as I love architecture,” Degeneres says, “I don’t appreciate redoing the guts of a home. People ask why I don’t build a home from scratch. I can’t imagine anything more stressful.” [The New York Times]

After San Francisco declined to let George Lucas build his Lucas Cultural Arts Museum in the city’s Presidio, Chicago is now working to find a place in their city to propose for the museum, although at least one other location is on the table. [Chicago Tribune]

One in ten U.S. bridges is in urgent need of repair, according to a report by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. [Reuters]

Boston mayor Martin Walsh wants to build more middle-class housing to support his vision of the city as a tech capital. “I’m not afraid to build a skyscraper for workforce housing,” he says. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Step Up, Step Down:

Big moves for architecture firms: Kansas City, Mo.-based sports architecture firm Populous is moving from its offices in the River Market to the Board of Trade building near the Country Club Plaza. Raleigh, N.C.-based Phillips Architecture recently relocated from the office it occupied for 23 years to the newly renovated Northchase office park on Six Forks Road in Raleigh. St. Louis-based firm HOK is considering a move out of the Metropolitan Square building that it designed.